Tuesday, July 2, 2013

While traveling last week, I had the time to read Aimee Buckner's book Notebook Connections. As I stated earlier, I am really looking to "beef up" my student's reading responses this year. I have done workshop for a long time, and I have had my students respond to their reading, but not to the level that will help them to meet the CCSS. This book was a great read and really broadened my ideas!
I am still considering having the students choose from a variety of writing choices as I discussed in my earlier post, but instead of having them choose one response for me to score, I think that I will use Ms. Buckner's more holistic approach and collect their notebooks every two weeks and give them a grade for variety and depth of entries in the notebook. I will score the notebook and make one response in general to the four-five entries they have written.

Another goal for this year's reading workshop is to do a better job of using the notebooks while conferencing with students. I work hard to meet with students quite frequently, but I do not do a great job of reviewing and discussing their notebook entries with them. I want this to be an area where I grow this year.

I am now going to read Ms. Buckner's writing notebook book called Notebook KnowHow. I am sure that, while it focuses on writing workshop, it will still help me to continue to fine-tune my thoughts on student responses to reading.

Have you read either of these books? Do you have any ideas to share?

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comments:

I ABSOLUTELY love Aimee Buckner and have read Notebook Connections and am currently reading Notebook Know How.She has such amazing information in her books and have incorporated a great deal of what I have read about into the units I am creating.So happy to have yet another Aimee Buckner blogging friend. :)Antoinette

I have read both and loved them. It has been a while and you have inspired me to re-read them. :)

I like where you are going with your response time and I think I do something similar in my room that might help. I require 3 written responses a week on their novel of choice and they choose the style of writing from a pretty wide open list with the exception of a few things I list on a rubric. I use the rubric to assess the pieces but I rarely actually grade them. We assess them together in a quick 5 minute conference so that they know exactly what the expect the following week. I have a schedule and conference with about 5 kids a day per class. I hope some of this rambling will be useful to you. :) Enjoy the second book. It truly is a great read. :)~BrandeeCreating Lifelong Learners

I am so glad you posted about this! I am looping up to 4th with my class and I am have been searching for ways to implement changes so that the group coming with me doesn't get bored/slack off. I am very much looking forward to reading both of these books now. Thanks again for the suggestions!!!

I know Antoinette already commented. But I must agree.I LOVE Aimee Buckner! The fact that she still teaches really makes her ideas seem plausible. I also like that she has an awareness that notebooks must be graded, because as she says "that's the world we live in."

I am really enjoying the 2nd book, too. If I only had an unlimited day to teach the kids...lol...I could get it all done.

Emily--her realism about grading really resonated with me, too! I hate grading. I want students to work hard and show progress. I don't care about A, B, C...I tell this to parents, too, and they basically get it, but in the end, they still care about the A, B, C. (I don't have a problem with that--as a parent, I still care about the A, too!)